Plans to electrify all petrol 2-wheelers under 150cc

The government’s think tank committee has proposed
complete electrification of all 150cc and below two-wheelers by 2025. Here’s
why it looks unlikely.

In the past few days, the
think tank committee has submitted a drastic proposal to curb
two-wheeler pollution and reduce dependency on fossil fuels. This includes
completely electrifying all new two-wheelers and three-wheelers sold in India
by 2025 and 2023, respectively.

To put things into perspective, in all 21 million
two-wheelers were sold in the last financial year alone. In comparison, only
1,26,000 EVs were sold in the same period. So, a complete ban of over millions
of petrol-powered two-wheelers over a period of just six years sounds
ridiculous. It is important to note that this is merely a proposal. The
government hasn’t showcased any intentions of actually putting it into action,
let alone enforce it.

And while we do advocate for reducing pollution and
dependency on fossil fuels, the proposed timeline to make this happen looks
nigh on impossible to achieve. Out of the aforementioned 21 million
two-wheelers, around 20 million of them (going by online reports) fall under
the 150cc and below category. Now, imagine replacing all of them with EVs. That
isn’t even the scary part.

You see, a major part of electricity is produced via
coal. Producing enough electricity for millions of two-wheelers could badly
harm the environment, which goes against the whole green, clean, electric thing,
right?

Then there are the limitations of charging
infrastructure. While companies like
Kymco and Ather are in the process of setting up their own
infrastructure, there needs to be a bigger initiative from the government’s
side. The modern-day lithium-ion battery is dependant on lithium, which is
majorly found in China. Hence, there is a risk of being dependent on another
country as we are now with middle-eastern countries for fuel.

But that’s just barely scratching the surface of it.
There are millions of people and thousands of vendors employed or working along
with India’s major automobile giants. A drastic change to EVs could lead to a
severe disturbance not only in the automobile industry but also to the
country’s economy.

Yes, going forward, EVs are the future of the country.
However, the progress towards it needs to be steady. Currently, the overall
electric technology to completely replace conventional automobiles isn’t there
yet. ZigWheels